Cory Bright delivered his third hit of the game to drive home Pat Costigan with the winning run in the bottom of the 8th inning to give the Melrose Americans a 6-5 win over the Malden Maddogs in the ICL’s play-in game at Morelli Field. After the Americans had tied the score at 4-4 in the bottom of the 7th, the Maddogs pushed across a run in the top of the 8th. The Americans will meet the Sabertooth Expos tonight at Morelli starting at 8 PM. The Andre Chiefs and Lexington Blue Sox meet in game one of their series at Maplewood, also at 8:00 PM.    

The Melrose Americans and Malden Maddogs will meet on Sunday night in the ICL’s play-in game at 8:00 PM at Morelli Field. The #4 Americans finished the season in fourth place with a 10-14 record while the the #5 Maddogs ended up in fifth position at 8-17. The winner of Sunday’s play-in game will move on to meet the #1 seeded Sabertooth Expos (20-5) in a best of three semi-final series that will begin Monday at Morelli at 8:00 PM. In the other semi-final series, the #2 Andre Chiefs (18-7) will meet the #3 Lexington Blue Sox (13-12). Game one is scheduled for Monday at Maplewood/Malden Catholic. Game two will be played in Lexington on Tuesday. If a game three is needed it will be contested back at Maplewood on Wednesday. All games in the series will begin at 8:00 PM. The semi-finals winners will move on to the ICL’s best of five championship series with the schedule for that series to be announced. In Thursday’s final regular season game, the Lexington Bulldogs beat the Maddogs 12-5 in Lexington. Friday’s scheduled Bulldogs-Americans game at Morelli Field has been cancelled due to the expected heavy rain.